The Origins of the First World War

New Approaches to European History #43

by William Mulligan

A second edition of this leading introduction to the origins of the First World War and the pre-war international system. William Mulligan shows how the war was a far from inevitable outcome of international politics in the early twentieth century and suggests instead that there were powerful forces operating in favour of the maintenance of peace. He discusses key issues ranging from the military, public opinion, economics, diplomacy and geopolitics to relations between the great powers, the role of smaller states and the disintegrating empires. In this new edition, the author assesses the extensive new literature on the war's origins and the July Crisis as well as introducing new themes such as the relationship between economic interdependence and military planning. With well-structured chapters and an extensive bibliography, this is an essential classroom text which significantly revises our understanding of diplomacy, political culture, and economic history from 1870 to 1914.

Genres: History, World War I, Nonfiction, European History, War, World History

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2010

Reviews

[Serdar Erenler]

Adından da anlaşılacağı gibi kitap 1. Dünya Savaşı'nın nedenlerine odaklanırken büyük güçlerin ekonomi ve ittifak bağlarıyla birbirleriyle ilişkilerini, savaştan 10 yıl öncesine kadar safların netleşmemesini, sömürgeler üzerindeki imtiyaz mücadelesinin etkilerini ve sivil kadroların genel olarak savaş karşıtı olmalarına rağmen Osmanlı'nın Balkanları kaybetmesi sonucunda ortaya çıkan istikrarsızlığın savaşı tetiklemesini aktarıyor. Beni etkileyen kısımlar küreselleşmenin savaş karşısı etkisi ve silahlanma yarışı başladıktan sonra savaşa giden yolun önünün kesilememesi oldu.
Genel iddiaların aksine savaşın çok uzun süreceğinin, insan ve maliyet kayıplarının çok yüksek olacağının, savaş batağına saplanan Rusya'da rejimin çökeceğinin önceden öngörülmesi ama buna rağmen kontrolün göz göre göre elden kaçması etkileyici kısımlarıydı kitabın. Dönemin meraklılarına öneririm, dönem bilgisi olmayan okuyucu için zorlayıcı bir okuma olacaktır.

[Stefan Gustafson]

This book was incredibly dense. The prose was dull and I had difficulty staying awake throughout. I only finished it because I had to for class. However, I learned a considerable amount. Mulligan obliterates common tropes about the origins of WW1 throughout. Mulligan contends rather than the alliance system being a cause for the war, that it actually fended off general war for decades. Moreover, Mulligan moves away from a teleological reading of European history prior to WW1, which is a revelation considering how common that practice is. Rather, the contingent sequence of events following the murder of Archduke Ferdinand created the crisis. Germany assumed Russia wouldn't risk a general war for Serbia, and Britain assumed France wouldn't enter the war without their consent, and Austria-Hungary was fighting with nothing to lose. This book felt like vital history to know, but wow, hard to work through. Had to get grimy.

[Differengenera]

Picked this up for the introduction which has an efficient summary of the historiography in preparation for Peregrine's Disputing Disaster, cos most of the historians he's dealing with there are only in print in languages I cannot read. The rest is Mulligans own work and he's working in the sphere of high diplomacy and great power treaties and so forth, which I find v boring, but my failing. Is there a good reason for this? I suppose the number of states which were so radically centralised, with no effective means of mediating mass opinion upwards, is the macro reason why this thing happened. Nothing to learn there of course

[Tim]

An organized, comprehensive description and analysis of the international situation in the decades before WWI. This is an informative and well-presented discussion of why peace was maintained as well as why the war may have started. Some points may be a little weak, but overall a useful collection of arguments.

[Andreas]

The book delivers a thorough overview about the topic. There are a lot of details in it, like numbers to the arms race, lots of names and much more. The author tells the facts from a rather neutral and balanced position. One thing though that he repeated, that was already stated in earlier books, is that England joined the Franco-Russian alliance to balance the power. The truth is that with England joining that alliance it tipped the power towards the triple entente. To speak of a balance after that is simply a misnomer in my opinion. While the triple entente was already in a much better position (more ships, more troops, more resources etc) especially France continued to do anything to further weaken the Austro-German position. This was done for example by loans to Serbia which increased the military power threatening the dual-monarchy , or signing treaties with Italy to break up the triple alliance (successfully as we know from history).
Still, a very good book and worth reading in my opinion.

[Jason S]

A detailed analysis of European power politics from 1871-1914; does a good job of restoring continengy to the origins of World War I and avoids the teleological approach of seeing every event prior to 1914 as the spiral to war.

[Rowan]

A comprehensive coverage of all the themes and arguments and a decent overview of the historiography but is perhaps lacking a single clear narrative.